Economics Commons^™

Municipal Optimization Of Short-Term Rental Regulations: The Reality Of Airbnb In South Texas Communities, Kenneth M. Culbreth Iii

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Challenges Of Making Financial Decisions And Avoiding Fraudulent Schemes, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

Last month there was an article in the local newspaper about a man accused of defrauding commodity investors for several years in Nebraska. This person is a commodity pool operator (CPO), who is an individual or organization that operates a commodity pool and solicits funds for that pool. A commodity pool is an enterprise in which funds contributed by a number of clients are combined for the purpose of trading futures contracts, options contracts, among other types of financial products. Generally speaking, a CPO manages an investment fund focused on commodity products.

Unscheduled Events, Stock Returns, And Market Efficiency: A Covid-19 Case Study Of Industry Leaders, Nathan R. Durham

Honors College Theses

This thesis explores the effects of unscheduled events on stock market returns due to increased uncertainty. A case study is done on the Coronavirus pandemic for the dates of March 9th, 2020, through March 23rd , 2020. The findings allow for short-run and long-run narratives where long-run returns, and short-run volatility explain how the role of psychology and different forecasting strategies are used to differentiate industry outcomes and technology sector returns.

Black Suburbanization: Causes And Consequences Of A Transformation Of American Cities, Alexander W. Bartik, Evan Mast

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Since 1970, the share of Black individuals living in suburbs of large cities has risen from 16 to 36 percent. This shift is as large as the post-World War II wave of the Great Migration. We first show that Black suburbanization has led to major changes in neighborhoods, accounting for a large share of recent increases in both the average Black individual’s neighborhood quality and within-Black income segregation. We then show that changes in relative suburban amenities and housing prices explain about 60 and 30 percent, respectively, of Black suburbanization, while regional reallocation, changing educational attainment, and gentrification play only …

California Coastal Recreation: Beyond The Beach, Charles S. Colgan, Philip King, Sarah Jenkins

Publications

California is known throughout the state, nation, and world for its beaches, but the California coast provides so much more in recreational opportunities than just a day at the beach. However, if one were to ask: “How many people actually visit the coast for recreation”, the answer is “No one really knows”.

The reason is simple. No one asks this question on a regular basis. Extensive monitoring of the physical conditions of the coast and coastal waters takes place but nothing remotely comparable is done to track the millions of people who come to the coast.

Because there is no …

Birds Of A Feather Lockdown Together: Mutual Bird-Human Benefits During A Global Pandemic, Michael Brock, Jacqueline Doremus, Liqing Li

Economics

Feeding backyard wildlife has impure public good characteristics - it provides satisfaction to humans, both private and public, while also improving bird populations. We document a surge in human interest in connecting with wild birds during lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Using an event-study design, we find large increases in bird engagement began soon after the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns in Spring 2020. Responses were stronger for areas with more bird species. Investments appear sustained, beginning first with bird feeders, then seed and finally baths. Beyond bird survival, bird feeding can potentially enhance humans' connection to nature …

Income Inequality And Consumption Pattern Among Bop Consumers In India, Sarath Sennimalai, S D. Sivakumar

International Review of Business and Economics

Marketing discipline has evolved through the context of the industrialized or developed world. However, the largest groups of consumers are also the poorest (Bottom of the Pyramid category) and economic inequality is still persisting among BOP consumers. Using the Gini co-efficient, economic inequality was measured with the help of World Bank report. The main aim of this paper is to know about the trends that took place in income inequality and consumption pattern among BOP consumers based on household surveys (from NSSO and World Bank). It shows that income inequality among BOP consumers has been increasing simultaneously with increase in …

Consumer Attitude And Their Purchase Intention: A Review Of Literature, Venkatesh S. Shastry, Anupama

International Review of Business and Economics

The objective of the paper is to bring spotlight on literature related to consumer attitude and purchase intention. The Paper attempts to identify and segregate factors which are vital and critical antecedents to formation of consumer attitude consequently “Intention to purchase”. For this purpose over 200 Journal articles were scrutinized on pre-set parameters, while 25 of them that are relevant research papers presented here. The factors considered include social media, traditional media, Word of mouth, message process involvement and trust. The findings of the study include a gamut of research objectives and aims, host of pertinent scales, commonly adopted methodologies, …

Undergraduate Financial Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors: The Impact Of Financial Life Skills Course On College Students, Cliff A. Robb, Somalis Chy

Grantee Research

The end goal of any program focused on financial literacy is to ultimately improve consumer well-being. Although financial literacy is widely acknowledged as increasingly important for consumers (Keshner, 2021), application of financial literacy programs and provision of supports and resources for consumers has not been consistent in the United States. Currently, thirty-three states require basic financial education in high school, though specific content, depth, and structure varies both within and across states. At the college-level, courses are often elective and content vary significantly from one college or university to another (Goetz et al., 2011; Jobst, 2014; LaBorde & Mottner, 2016; …

Application Of Fmea In Solving The Financial Inclusion Issue In India, Chandravadan Shrihari Goritiyal, Shreya Surve

International Review of Business and Economics

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is an operational tool which systematically, proactively evaluates the method to spot where the potential failure might occur and identify the potential causes, which would help to reduce the relevant impact of various failures in the process. Financial inclusion generally understood to mean the method of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by all sections of society including vulnerable groups at an economical cost. It's an immediate impact on the expansion of the economy of the country. This paper analyses the effect of Indian citizen participation in financial inclusion and identifies …

Optimum Commodity Taxation When Employment Matters, P. Nandakumar Warreir

International Review of Business and Economics

Ramsey's inelasticity rule for optimum commodity taxation has been criticized for indicating tax rates for basic necessities which have lower elasticities of demand than luxury consumption items. However, it is noted that skilful marketing techniques tend to lower the demand elasticities of luxury items so that it is not evident that the Ramsey rule is inequitable. In this paper equity concerns from a macroeconomic viewpoint are introduced, modifying the Ramsey rule approach by including total employment in the decision-maker's utility function. Then it is seen that the relative tax rate of the product which is more labour-intensive in production is …

Long-Term Effects Of In Utero Exposure To “The Year Without A Summer”, Hamid Noghanibehambari, Farzaneh Noghani, Nahid Tavassoli, Mostafa Toranji

Economic and Business Review

This paper uses the aftermath of the great Tambora eruption in 1815 as a natural experiment to explore the long-term effects of a nutritional shock during prenatal development. The volcanic explosion of Tambora formed substantial ash columns which hampered sunlight, cooled down the surface temperature, reduced the length of the growing season, and led to a severe harvest failure during summer and winter of 1816 in Europe and northeastern states of America. US decennial census 1850 provides evidence that cohorts in utero during the climate anomaly revealed lower literacy rates, lower labor force participation rates, a fewer number of own …

Organizational Structure And Pricing: Evidence From A Large U.S. Airline, Ali Hortaçsu, Olivia R. Natan, Hayden Parsley, Timothy Schwieg, Kevin R. Williams

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Firms often involve multiple departments for critical decisions that may result in coordination failures. Using data from a large U.S. airline, we document the presence of important pricing biases that differ significantly from dynamically optimal profit maximization. However, these biases can be rationalized as a “second-best” after accounting for department decision rights. We show that assuming prices are generated through profit maximization biases demand estimates and that second-best prices can persist, even under improvements to pricing algorithm inputs. Our results suggest caution in abstracting from organizational structure and drawing inferences from firms’ pricing decisions alone.

Coresets For Regressions With Panel Data, Lingxiao Huang, K. Sudhir, Nisheeth Vishnoi

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper introduces the problem of coresets for regression problems to panel data settings. We first define coresets for several variants of regression problems with panel data and then present efficient algorithms to construct coresets of size that depend polynomially on 1/ε (where ε is the error parameter) and the number of regression parameters – independent of the number of individuals in the panel data or the time units each individual is observed for. Our approach is based on the Feldman-Langberg framework in which a key step is to upper bound the “total sensitivity” that is roughly the sum of …

Organizational Structure And Pricing: Evidence From A Large U.S. Airline, Ali Hortaçsu, Olivia R. Natan, Hayden Parsley, Timothy Schwieg, Kevin R. Williams

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Although typically modeled as a centralized firm decision, pricing often involves multiple organizational teams that have decision rights over specific pricing inputs. We study team input decisions using comprehensive data from a large U.S. airline. We document that pricing at a sophisticated firm is subject to miscoordination across teams, uses persistently biased forecasts, and does not account for cross-price elasticities. With structural demand estimates derived from sales and search data, we find that addressing one team’s biases in isolation has little impact on market outcomes. We show that teams do not optimally account for biases introduced by other teams. We …

An Accounting And Economic Analysis Of Various Tax Plans And Strategies, Max Catalanotto

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Giver: Vision & Memory, Alexander J. Dontre

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

A memory hole is the banishment of problematic thoughts. We exile that which we prefer not to exist. Enter the perilous Memory Hole: The Psychology of Dystopia, to explore a legion of social and psychological themes through the lens of dystopian literature. The crushing fist of 1984 annihilating thoughts from existence as a means of persuasion. The exquisite seduction of addiction as an agent of control in Brave New World. Incineration of the written word to bask in the embers of peace of mind in Fahrenheit 451. Each chapter weaves in and out of the dystopian realms forged …

A Game Theoretic Study On Csr And Government Intervention For Sustainable Production, Katherine Ann J. Fernandez, Joshua Ryan C. Go, Jean Nicole L. Ng, Bianca Alanis Ysabel C. Redulla, Jason P. Alinsunurin, Dickson A. Lim, Mariel Monica R. Sauler

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

We use a game theoretic approach to assess how the government can influence firms’ CSR investment and production decisions to enhance social welfare, considering the negative externalities brought by unsustainable production and positive externalities brought by CSR investments. Using a Stackelberg duopoly as a base model and lump-sum tax as the government’s decision variable, we find that when the government chooses not to intervene, it results in greater environmental damage as firms will underinvest in CSR and overproduce in quantity to achieve profit maximization. As such, the model extends to the assumption that the government acts as a benevolent dictator …

Examining And Evaluating The Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (Mepi) In The Philippine Household Context, Anna Katrina R. Ignacio, Maria Sofia Lei P. Puncia, Arlene B. Inocencio, Marites M. Tiongco, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, Alellie B. Sobrevinas, Rens Adrian T. Calub

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Energy poverty refers to insufficient energy consumption to meet one’s basic needs. Measuring energy poverty is a vital calculation for a household assessment concerning accessibility of energy, affordability of energy prices, usage of energy resources, and sufficiency of energy consumption. Previous literature has extensively used the multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI) to analyze the lack of access to modern energy services, including energy poverty intensity and incidence, and provide a framework for government policymaking. However, there is a variation between countries on how MEPI energy deprivation factors affect household welfare. This study aims to determine more accurate measures of household …

Teaching Math With Confidence-Recommendations For Improving Numeracy From The Lens Of Confidence Building, Louie Bernard A. Jacob, Miguel Angelo S. Rabago, Hans Erickson A. Tan, Lawrence Dacuycuy, Gerardo L. Largoza, Maria Fe Carmen L. Dabbay

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Despite the vast amount of literature surrounding the topic of financial literacy and related problems, there is still no universally accepted solution to this issue because the main factors causing financial literacy problems are still not fully understood both by researchers and current policy-makers. A possible new approach was discovered by Skagerlund et al. (2018), as their research suggested that financial literacy is driven by numeracy (the ability to process and perform basic numerical concepts and calculations) rather than direct knowledge about financial concepts. Given that numeracy is an effort based task, this policy brief provides a list of recommendations …

Paso Del Norte Economic Indicator Review, November, Hunt Institute For Global Competitiveness

Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Bias In Occupational Fatality Risk: Theory, Evidence, And Implications, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

Behavioral bias in occupational fatality risk is introduced to the theoretical framework of hedonic wages, yielding an endogenous risk ceiling that increases social welfare. Empirically, bias is most evident among workers with no high school diploma, who do not report relatively greater exposure to death in high fatality rate occupations. These findings suggest that extant population estimates of value of statistical life are biased downwards and should be factored by at least 1.35. Under reasonable assumptions, simulations suggest an optimal risk ceiling between 73.0 to 85.9 percentile of the population distribution of occupational fatality risk.

Africa’S Development Debts, B. J. Ndulu, Stephen A. O'Connell

Economics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Recreational Cannabis Access On Labor Markets: Evidence From Colorado, Avinandan Chakraborty, Jacqueline Doremus, Sarah Stith

Economics

Recreational cannabis markets possibly increase labor demand through investments in facilities for growing, processing, and retail sales of cannabis, as well as through other industries such as manufacturing, leisure, and hospitality. However, this increase in labor demand may vary substantially across counties within a state as most states with legal recreational canna-bis allow individual counties to ban commercial cannabis sales. Meanwhile, labor supply may change through positive and negative effects from cannabis use. Using county-level Colorado data from 2011 to 2018 and exploiting variation across counties in the existence and timing of the start of dispensary sales, we test for …

Essays On The Impacts Of Extreme Natural Events On Health, Moumita Ghorai

Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three chapters that examine how extreme events impact health outcomes such as short-term illness, body mass index, probability of pre-term birth, and mortality. The study reveals the severe consequences of these events and shows that certain groups within a particular country are affected disproportionately.

The first chapter examines whether National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), India’s flagship workfare program, mitigates adverse health outcomes of a drought. This paper contributes to a growing area of research on adaptations to climate change. Using Indian Human Development Survey (2004-2005 and 2010-2011), a nationally representative panel data set, and high resolution …

What Makes A Classmate A Peer? Examining Which Peers Matter In Nyc Elementary Schools, William C. Horrace, Hyunseok Jung, Jonathan L. Pressler, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

Generalizing the group interaction model of Lee (2007), we identify and estimate the effects of student level social spillovers on standardized test performance in New York City (NYC) elementary schools. We leverage student demographic data to construct within-classroom social networks based on shared student characteristics, such as a gender or ethnicity. Rather than aggregate shared characteristics into a single network matrix, we specify additively separate network matrices for each shared characteristic and estimate city-wide peer effects for each one. Conditional on being in the same classroom, we find that the most important student peer effects are shared ethnicity, gender, and …

Do Black-Owned Banks Substitute For Payday Lenders? An Exploratory Study, James R. Barth, Richard J. Cebula, Jiayi Xu

American Business Review

The annualized interest rate charged on payday loans can reach 1,950 percent, whereas similar rates charged by banks are typically less than 25 percent. Also, persons borrowing from payday lenders and paying the higher interest rates are disproportionately lower-income Blacks. This provides an incentive for Blacks seeking loans to turn to banks rather than payday lenders. This may be more likely to happen when there are Black-owned banks in communities with greater percentages of Blacks. Indeed, offices of such banks may substitute for payday loan stores, providing a greater opportunity for Blacks to avoid the higher interest rates associated with …

Covid-19 And Women-Led Businesses Around The World, Yu Liu, Siqi Wei, Jian Xu

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Using a brand-new dataset covering 24 countries, we document that women-led businesses are subject to a higher likelihood of closure and a longer closure duration than men-led businesses during the pandemic. Women business leaders are also more pessimistic about the future than men business leaders. The disadvantages suffered by women-led businesses widen in high gender inequality economies and developing economies. Our results further indicate that finance and labor factors are likely to be the major contributors to these disadvantages. We suggest that COVID-19′s policy response should …

The Behavioral Si* Model, With Applications To The Swine Flu And Covid-19 Pandemics, Jussi Keppo, Marianna Kudlyak, Elena Quercioli, Lones Smith, Andrea Wilson

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

The 1927 SIR contagion model is the dynamical system for an infection that passes at a constant rate in random pairwise meetings. Our Behavioral SI* Model assumes that everyone has access to a constant elasticity of avoidance technology. We then derive the passing rate in fully solvable Nash equilibrium of the game where everyone optimizes. The resulting dynamics are log-linear, and incidence is log-linear in prevalence, with slope less than one.

The SI* models yields extreme predictions for major contagions, not realized. At breakout, the SI* models capture exponential growth. In our BSI* model, increasing avoidance behavior bends the curve, …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 5, Number 11, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Steven L. Fullerton

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.